NZ ban on Kosher meat overturned

Hooray!  Finally common sense - the New Zealand ban on Kosher meat has been overturned

I was sick of telling my Mum that she was a criminal every time she ate in our house.

For the record, Shechita is no more or less cruel than stunning.  Stunning fails in approximately 9% of the time.  Veganism is obviously less cruel to animals, but if you allow eating meat, then Shechita is no more or less cruel.

SAFE ran a terrible campaign, with lots of misinformation.  Usually a good organisation, but this time they got it wrong.

Another shocker by David Shearer

David Shearer wrote this incredibly biased piece in Red Alert on the Gaza "aid" flotilla

No need to mention Hamas violence or rockets.  According to Shearer Hamas are "considered terrorists" only by Israelis.  Not the rest of the world. 

If he takes Labour to the election, I will be bringing these back...

Kevin Rudd luncheon

On Friday I attended a luncheon with Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia. The lunch was hosted at one of Melbourne’s largest function centers, by the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce, with approximately 1200 guests. There were multiple large screens so that gustes could see a close up of the PM.

The luncheon was opened by Peter Cosgrove, former chief of the Australian armed forces, who discussed the General Sir John Monash Award – and presented one of the eight winners to speak. This is an award for Australia’s best and brightest – each of the 8 winners had multiple university degrees in firts class honours, spoke several languages, had worked overseas in high profile posts, and performed high profile volunteer work. In their spare time, several of them run marathons! The prize is a scholarship to complete a PhD at any University in the world. The award was a worthy investment in the future of the country – and the award winner noted she had been issued a challenge. During Kevin Rudd’s speech he later announced that the federal govt was giving $720,000 towards the 2010 prize (enabling 4 extra winners).

Sir John Monash was credited with being the first to commerate ANZAC day, in 1916. Much was said to honour him as a great Australian and very much a people’s leader within the armed forces.

Kevin Rudd opened his speech by reaffirming himself as a lifelong friend of Israel. He also publicly stated “I condemn the anti-semitic comments and sentiment made by the leader of Iran”. An interesting contrast to NZ’s Grant Robertson. He stated that Australia decided to pull out of Durban II, only when it was plainly obvious that Israel was going to be singled out in the conferences findings.

He then talked at length about GFC, and the local stimulus package.

At the G20 Summit, the 1929 depression was discussed – at that time it was noted that countries decided not to work together, but to try and protect their own interests, which made the depression longer and harder, ultimately culminating in the great war. The resolve for G20 was made for countries to work together such that each provided their own stimulus packages.

For Australia, he talked of the stimulus packages here as an investment for the future. By Upgrading Schools across the country, they intern stimulated the economy now, so that when recovery came, they would have the infrastructure to cope with the future’s demands.

A lot of Australian’s will take these statements with a grain of salt. I was not a citizen at the last election, nor do I have political affiliation, but I was very impressed by the speech. I will try and find if a full transcript is available.

Vote for Me! Party Vote Green

After Keith Locke's famous "My colleagues Hamas" quote, I was able to create a poster using the NZ Greens own website.  Awwww ... think of the kids!

Matt McCarten's most vile post

This is a backdated post, but I need to reference Matt McCarten's most vile post. 

After this week, does anyone doubt that Israel is a terrorist state?

 The very first line he is projecting his hatred against an entire nation, and carries on to finally conclude.

The truth is Israel is a terrorist state and is able to wage crimes on an innocent people because it is funded and abetted by the world's only superpower.

 I really don't know how he gets a gig with the NZ Herald.  At least John Minto is no longer writing for Fairfax, why let such an extremist write for a regular newspaper?